Star Fox: Epsilon
by Grant Crose
Summary: Lylat is falling by the hands of a rebel elite army, Star Fox undertake a risky mission to end with their reign of terror. Note: This is a work of mere fiction, any supernatural concept depicted here shall not be believed in or practiced in any way. Violence of any kind is not encouraged in any way.
1. Chapter 1: Between Destinies

Star Fox: Epsilon

Chapter 1: Between Destinies

I've always been positive, yeah, especially from the side of my father, James McCloud, but in that situation, I really thought there was no escape. I cut a cable from the battery I was handling and the engine woke up again, I got very relieved when my love, Krystal, spoke through her comm. "Fox, how much energy have we got? I still need to transfer the virus." There is something in the way she speaks that, I don't know, it always makes me to feel better.

Anyway, I managed to buy us some time. "I got you three more minutes as much, the nucleus will halt again after that." I closed the lid of the battery and stood up to hurry towards the automatic door I had left open. The lights of the ship's hallway were dim and intermittent, my steps echoed across my way towards the cockpit, I don't consider myself as someone with a great memory, but, those things stood, like, very vivid inside of my mind so it's like living it all over again. The thing is, I made it to the pilot seat, I just needed to make sure the ship wasn't going to blow up, or at least with us inside of it. I tried to set up some stuff on the console in front of me, but it didn't help at all, the engine had a security system and it was overheating, I activated my comm and spoke to Krystal, maybe I was just trying to hear her again, I was very anxious in that moment so I needed her voice to calm down a little bit. "Krystal, how is the download going." I tried to sound brave and tough but I was literally trembling at such a situation.

Her response came late enough to get me worried in that small breach of time I had waited for an answer. "Wait…one hundred percent, it's done, did you manage to stop the security protocol?" I didn't want to say anything, but I had to give her the bad news that there was a slight, well no, a great chance that the ship was about to explode, along with the two of us.

I gained courage and turned on my comm. "Uhm, do you want the truth?" Yeah, I know, not the best of answers, but seriously I mean I was trained for this type of situations back on the Academy but this was something different, obviously she understood what I was trying to imply.

I just heard a sigh from my comm, one of worry and frustration, I even imagined the face she could've been making from where she was, her head lowered down and a look of concern, or maybe she kept a straight face, who knows. Her reply was reassuring, but worrying at the same time. "Okay I…I think I have an idea, but you aren't going to like it."

To be honest, I thought she was going to say something like, Fox, I love you or something like that for a second, but she tends to see things more optimistically than me so I asked her with a little fear what exactly she had in mind. "I'm all ears, Krystal." Then, I swear I thought she was kidding, I mean, turning off the ship entirely?! That meant leaving us with only ten minutes of oxygen from the cargo ship's backup system, but it was that or exploding in a million pieces, so it was a wonderful option in comparison. "Okay, I'll go back to the engine room." I ran there and began to do and undo everything I could, then I managed to deactivate the ship's system entirely. The room went pitch dark, along with the rest of the ship of course, the backup system had released the reserve oxygen, I went back to the cockpit, I couldn't see anything but I managed to get there without too much hassle.

As I sat on the pilot chair, again, Krystal was going down the staircase from the ship's archive to the hallway behind me. "I got the file." I could only hear my mind telling me what would happen when the oxygen had ran out, after a moment she had sat down next to me, we could see each other because of the light of the stars that barely illuminated the cockpit. She looked calm but I could see some unsettlement on her eyes, but I admit she was good in hiding it. "I sent a distress call to the team." She closed her eyes and put her hands behind her neck, like if she was about to take a nap.

I hesitated to ruin her moment of peace with a comment, but I did it anyway. "Do you think they'll answer?" I think I bothered her a little bit because she exhaled rather annoyed.

"Maybe, maybe not, we have ten minutes to find out." Her ability to stay calm has always impressed me. I just nodded and glanced at the stars, trying not to breathe too strong to save oxygen. My nerves were kind of confused, I had the right to feel altered, or at least uneasy, but her attitude is so contagious, is because the level of trust I have with her, if she is okay, then I am, she is the most trustworthy person I've ever known, so I just tried to relax a little bit, in wait for help.

After I managed to calm down, Krystal made me a sudden question. "Fox, will this be our last one?"

At first, I didn't fully get what she meant with that. "They will come, we have to wait as you said." When she shook her head and lowered her gaze, I knew something else was happening.

"I can't count the number of missions we have been in, but something I do remember, is…" She sobbed and I was still unsure about her point. "I…" Her gaze was locked into mine, I could see a tear traveling through her cheek, so I put my hand over her shoulder, I knew she needed to gain strength to tell me whatever she was trying to express. "I think about us, every time we finish a duty, I feel there are less steps left to a simple, life with you, until the end, but also, I can foresee an endless route of risk and danger, also with you, only that, different."

She started to cry, and her comment had taken me totally off guard. "Different?" I had no more words to say, I just leaned more closely to her to make her feel safer.

"I don't like it, Fox, I don't like that scenario at all, I do love going on adventures with you, I love being anywhere with you, but, is it going to be that way forever? Blowing things up and fearing death every day of our lives?" She got closer to me and hugged me, she placed her head over my chest, I just stroked her blue hair and let her take out all of that, but in my mind, I was focused in what she had just told me, I knew that protecting Lylat was my life, my purpose, and my father's, and I had always seen myself dying for my system, but also, a normal, simple life with my love, was something great to dream with, I had so many questions in that moment, she was still sobbing with sorrow.

After there were just a few minutes of backup oxygen remaining, I saw Falco's ship's lights through the window, I smiled after such a relief, Krystal had got asleep but I patted her forehead gently to wake her up, she blinked a couple of times and looked at Falco's ship.

Of course she was grateful about being rescued, but also, she still looked not well, I hate seeing her that way, it´s as if someone stabs me right into my stomach, it was no different here. "For how long are we still doing this, Fox, before there's no way back?" There I knew what she was implying, it was horrifying for me to think that way, but still, somewhat important to consider at times.


	2. Chapter 2: Storm After Storm

Star Fox: Epsilon

Chapter 2: Storm After Storm

As always, Falco swanked about saving our guts, I just ignored him as I sat down in the back part of his new ship along with my wife, we are kind of accustomed to his cockiness, but it never stops to be annoying. "I didn't hear a thank you, McCloud."He knows it pisses me of when he says that, I don't know why I keep answering to that, though.

"Thanks bud, I appreciate your help."I just said so to keep his mouth shut for a moment, then I saw Krystal looking at the data drive she was holding. "So, we got it; this virus could destroy Epsilon from its core."She didn't answer me immediately, so I could see she wasn't well, specially after what she had told me back in the cargo ship.

"Yeah, let's hope that pirate doesn't find out his backup ship was hacked." Her gaze was away from everything; it worried me for sure.

"Backup ship?" Falco couldn't be considered an expert in pirating; they were not his type of missions.

I looked at Krystal again to see if she wanted to illustrate Falco with an answer, but it's possible that she didn't even hear him, so I replied instead. "You know, pirates need safe places to store their stuff like maps, weapons, treasures, what better choice than an old, outdated ship wandering in the middle of nowhere?"

Falco nodded like if he already didn't care. "Great."Sometimes he is interested in something and then all of a sudden he just forgets everything about it. "So, when will we attack?"

I was ready to end the reign of terror of those Epsilon guys; we needed the virus to destroy their communication systems, with that done, there couldn't be anything they could do against us and the fleet of the cornerian army. "I'll call Peppy to confirm when we are heading to Dirartar, tentatively in tomorrow's afternoon."

"I can't wait to end with those traitors." Falco really hated Epsilon, not exactly for what it represented, but because one of his cousins was part of the organization back when it worked for Corneria as an elite, secret group of mercenaries, he still couldn't get over with knowing one member of his family had abandoned every thing the Lombardi believed in.

"I need to ask Peppy the details about the mission, but in general terms we will infiltrate Epsilon's base in Dirartar and send them the virus, this ship has encryption system, Falco?" Peppy had told me Epsilon had great security barriers protecting their base, so I needed to know if Falco's new acquisition had the necessary to succeed.

Falco chuckled and took the opportunity to presume about his ship. "Are you kidding me?! This beauty has everything, cannons, receivers, holograms, and of course, one of the most advanced encryption systems in Lylat."

"Good." I got an idea of why Falco used that ship more than his arwing, I must give him the reason in that, that ship was really a beauty, I don't know how he managed to afford it, maybe a juicy bounty he had obtained.

Later, we arrived to Corneria in nighttime; Falco landed his ship over the roof of the tower where our apartment was and then we got off it. "You two can still thank me the right way, maybe some drinks when the mission is done."

He is always looking for an excuse to drink, not that I blame him, I mean, our job can be exhausting some times, it would be great to chill once in a while. "We'll see then bud, you better rest, tomorrow will be a long day."

"I don't promise anything, but yeah I'll see you in the morning." Falco waved his hand at us and got inside his ship, leaving after a boost.

That same night, I went to bed after I had taken a shower, but I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep well, there was a lot of stuff inside of my mind. Krystal joined me a few minutes later. "Good night." She turned off the lamp from her side, and I felt like if she had gone to another room, but of course she was there.

I also turned off my lamp. "Good night." I laid facing the window, I glanced at the buildings of Corneria and the ships flying off the port to try to get my mind lost on that, but I could only think about my wife, it was the first time in years I was feeling a distance between us, it scared me more than anything I had experienced before, in life or in combat. I couldn't stand to feel that way, so I turned around to see her, that at least made me feel confident that she was indeed at my side. I moved closer to her and hugged her slowly, then she took my hand, she was still awake. "Fox."

"Yeah." I knew what was coming, again with the simple life stuff, but I was willing to hear her, I wanted to resolve that matter already.

"Who am I, in your life?" I thought the answer was quite simple.

"Well, you are my wife, Krystal." But there was unsurprisingly more with her question.

"Think more, Fox, I need to know." She confused me at first, but then I just said what my heart truly wanted to say.

"You are my salvation." I just let that out, but neither did I know what that meant, to be honest.

"Salvation?"It was something hard to explain, but for her, I was willing to do anything.

"You know, I had always lived with the idea that, piloting ships and firing guns was everything, for many years I felt I had reached the top, that there was nothing more beyond that, until the day I knew you, there I realized that I was just living at the bottom, that there was so much more to see and discover, and I knew, in an instant, that I wanted to live all of that at your side." I put my hand on her shoulder and moved her a little bit, to try to see her face. She then turned completely around, and we ended gazing directly into each other's eyes. "You saved me from myself, Krystal, you appeared like an oasis in the desert that my life was, you give me life, Krystal, I have no life without you." I saw a tear forming in the corner of her eye, then she leaned closer to me and started to kiss me, after about a minute, she got her muzzle away from mine and just kept glancing at me, then she turned her back and didn't say a word. I felt confused and afraid, unsettled, by her seemingly emotionless actions, I perceived doubt on her, and doubt had never been something easy for me to deal with.


	3. Chapter 3: Red Lights

Star Fox: Epsilon

Chapter 3: Red Lights

The light of the morning had woken me up, the first thing I did was to see Krystal, still asleep, I didn't want to take her out of any dream she could be in, but the day had come, the day when we were going to hit Epsilon for true, Falco and Slippy tend to rise early, so I knew I had to wake her up. "Krystal." I poked her arm gently, then she looked at me with her eyes partially opened.

"Are we late already?" It felt kinda odd for me not hearing a 'good morning' from her, but I didn't give it too much importance at the time.

"No, we are right on time we just need to hurry and go to the port, Falco and Slippy must be there already." I stood up from the bed and looked for my clothes; I rapidly put on my white shirt and my green vest, then I went for my pants and my boots.

Krystal did so too a moment after me, she had it easier, as she only needed to zip up her blue bodysuit and she was good to go. "Fox, I hope we can focus on the mission, there is so much at risk."

I was finishing the last knot from my boot, and I just answered automatically. "Sure." I picked up my gun and put it on my holster. As Krystal was done after keeping the drive with the virus we had acquired on a bag of her suit, she opened the door and exited the room with no more words to say, then I followed her. When we were in the elevator, I could feel an unfamiliar and unsettling silence between us, I caught her glancing at me a couple of times, but she didn't say a word, neither did I. It was exactly the same thing when we were waiting for our transport out of the tower.

Her gaze was lost on the transport's window the entire way to the port, I desperately wanted to know what she was thinking, what she was feeling, was she mad at me? Or maybe sick? Of course it was more likely to be the first one, but I was too afraid to think I could be the reason of her mood. The hover-train arrived to the port, we got down and we saw Falco and Slippy from the distance ready to get on board The Great Fox.

"Late, as always." I pretended to laugh at Falco's try to mock me and just shook his hand.

"I've already double checked the ship, Fox." It was no strange from Slippy to exaggerate in his precautions, but sometimes that actually had gave us a great advantage at delicate situations.

"Good to hear that bud, It's a shame that Peppy won't be accompanying us, though." Peppy decided to support our mission from Corneria, honestly I don't know if it was just an excuse to deny the fact that he was getting old for that type of missions.

We got inside The Great Fox afterwards, the route was set to the Dirartar system, the planetoid where Epsilon had its headquarters, it was no short trip, so we were just hanging out with Falco and Slippy on the lounge. Falco was having a beer and Slippy and I obviously chose not to drink during the mission. "Come on guys, don't leave me alone with this." Of course he hadn't learned from the numerous incidents he lived in the past.

I was just laying on the couch next to the window. "No thanks, I don't want to crash my arwing over a market."

Falco had a convenient excuse ready for that. "It was the direction system, and you both know it." He stood up from his seat like if he was sure about it.

"Come on, even the medic couldn't believe you were able to lift your ship from the ground." If Sleepy remembers something, it must be taken as a fact, or at least if it's to mock Falco.

"And Peppy had to use his influences to save your skull." I knew how to hit his pride, so Falco pretended to be upset with us and just left, that usually means that he has no more arguments to defend himself, or that he is hungry.

Slippy tried to start a new conversation with the last of questions I wanted to hear in that moment. "Where's Krystal?"

"I don't know, maybe sleeping." I thought that would've been enough to shut him up for good, but he can be very insistent at times.

"But we lifted off just a couple of hours ago, and I don't remember her being from the type that takes naps on missions." He is my comrade but, honestly, I can't stand his annoying efforts to know everything, every time.

I couldn't come up with a better idea than to leave as Falco did. "You know what? I am going to get something to the kitchen."

Just when I got to the hallway, Slippy came up with other question. "Trouble between you two?" I bit my tongue to prevent saying something I would've regretted later that day, I just stared at him with a straight face, I think he got the message as he turned his gaze away from mine.

I went to the kitchen and found Falco opening another beer. "Mind if I join you?"

Falco chuckled and took a sip from his drink. "I guess Slippy always wakes the worst of oneself."

I opened a can of beer from the six-pack Falco had taken from the fridge and took a long sip from it. "Yeah." The alarms suddenly activated, which ruined my brief rebel moment, Falco and I left our drinks and ran towards the control room and noticed four red lights on the ship's radar.

"Epsilon?" Falco noted a familiar formation on the group of objects that were displayed on the screen.

"They have extended their barricades." The ships were grouped with certain dispersion; Epsilon was constant in their way to get things done.

Slippy and Krystal had come to the control room too and saw the radar. "How close are they?" Like I said, she was good to stay calm.

"Enough." I ran to the hallway in a hurry to get to my arwing. "Everyone, to your ships!"


	4. Chapter 4: Dust Over The Golden Dream

Star Fox: Epsilon

Chapter 4: Dust Over The Golden Dream

Our ships were in formation as we left The Great Fox in stand by mode, Epsilon's pilots didn't wait too long to appear on our screens. "The always unmistakable Star Fox team, Corneria is becoming more and more cheapskate even with high-profile missions." Epsilon wasn't particularly known for their humility, so it wasn't strange for me to hear that leopard's cocky words.

"Don't overestimate yourselves; you are just a rock in the shoe." I moved my ship forward, and they started to shoot their weapons at us, we evaded the attacks and split to let each one of us deal with a pilot. The leopard's face had disappeared from my screen; I had his ship just behind me, I dodged his shots and evaded his tackles.

"Help me get rid of this missile!" Slippy was in trouble, like pretty much every time, a guided missile was following his ship along with Epsilon's pilot, I waited for the right moment and flew at full speed to get closer to them, then I finally managed to aim directly at the missile and shot at it, it exploded far enough from Slippy to not make him any harm, and close enough to the pilot to destroy his ship and make it explode. "Thanks, Fox." I was still relieved by hearing Slippy through the console's comm.

"No problem, bud." The radar of my arwing was now displaying just three lights. "Three more left, team."

"You mean, two." I saw Falco hovering over the ship that was after him, he dropped an electric bomb that attached to the glass of the ship's front, he always brings the best toys for important missions, he stood there to see the ship electrocuting alongside its pilot, then he flew away from it and the ship exploded.

"How are you doing, Krystal?" She had become better at her piloting skills, but it is always hard for me not to feel worried while she is flying.

"I'm fine, thanks." I think she wanted to demonstrate something as she chased the pilot she had been dealing with and began to shoot all she had at the ship's back, she kept shooting the laser machine gun of her arwing with no stop and after she had destroyed the entire back part of the ship it exploded right in front of her then I flew next to the explosion to see if she was okay.

"Krystal!" I got very afraid, more than the usual, but she finally passed through the remaining smoke of the explosion. "Alright, I got this one." I turned to evade the shots of the remaining pilot, that cocky leopard was starting to stress me out, so I decided to apply an old maneuver that I learned from Peppy. I accelerated towards the ship's engines and leaned my arwing in a way that the right wing could hit them, I managed to bend both cylinders and the back camera of my ship displayed the explosion in my screen after I got to a safe distance.

"Good job Fox! I'll return to the ship." Slippy was the first one to fly back to The Great Fox, sometimes I think he secretly doesn't enjoy to fly that much.

"Come on, team, we better hurry to get in time to Dirartar." We followed Slippy on his way to the ship; I got to admit that those pilots put us in actual trouble, but my team has never ran away from a battle.

The Fox's gate closed and we got off of our arwings, everything seemed to be okay, but I saw Krystal rubbing her head as she landed her feet on the floor. "Are you okay, Krystal?" Falco was the first to get on her way.

"Just a little hit, I'll be fine." Krystal hurried her walking and headed towards the automatic door that led to the hallway then she got out from our sight. Slippy and Falco just glanced at me as if I had the obligation to do something, thing that I instantly felt, of course.

I went to the hallway and found Krystal leaning over the wall next to her room. I walked towards her slowly and noticed that she was covering half of her face with her hand. "Krystal, if you are hurt I can to go to the med bay and…" If only I had kept my mouth shut.

"Just go!" She put eyes that I had never seen before. "I told you about this, and you never listened, Fox, maybe next time I won't be so lucky and you'll finally get what I wanted you to see! But it'll be too late anyways." Those words of her caught my mind and my heart off guard, she just locked herself in her room after that, but I stood there, outside and sat down over the floor and lowered my head. The distance between us now looked like an ocean in my mind, the message was clearer, she was tired of this, danger then pain, but her choice was to go with us, she could've just stayed in Corneria, and with this thought I felt relieved and guilty at the same time, I discovered that she was willing to take any risk to be at my side, but she had reached the limit, everyone has limits, and it pained me to know I was the reason of her chosen pain. I put my hand on the door of her room, to kind of feel close to her, it may sound like madness, but that certainly comforted me a little.


	5. Chapter 5: Hope Of The Broken

Star Fox: Epsilon

Chapter 5: Hope Of The Broken

I had to distract my mind, to get out of my emotions for a brief moment, Falco had been bothering me to play a match of holo-hockey on the ship's lounge, either he managed to convince me or I just really wanted to forget everything.

"You better play seriously or I'll beat you in no time." I think Falco said that from his side of the table, but my mind was elsewhere so honestly I didn't get the exact words. She had invaded my mind, so many memories and experiences, even the movements I automatically made with the virtual striker remembered me the way I used to stroke her face after a harsh day of work. "Come on man! You'll lose!" Falco somehow thought I was paying attention to him, however, that last word sounded fairly analogical to me. My mind was in another place, in a different time.

Inside the memories I had been forced to relive by my moment of uncertainty, I could see her, in that beautiful white dress she wore in our holiday on Corneria's simulated beaches, clean sky blue ocean, a visible sun, life-like sandy hills, palm trees and huge hotel buildings before the made-up horizon, everything below an unnoticeable dome that generated tropical climate perpetually. I was just seeing her, playing on the intentionally calmed waves of the artificial ocean, laughing the only way a beautiful woman can laugh, with grace and an uncannily hypnotizing tone. If I would have had the chance, I would have chosen to live my entire life admiring that scene, something I'm doing my best to describe, but it's not enough to explain those emotions sufficiently.

Her sleep turned into a delight for my sight when she fell asleep over her palette, I was also tired from that day of heat and waves, but nothing could've kept my mind away from her, my wife, the love of my life, laying there like a delicate leaf floating over a pond, with such peace that even the slightest attempt to wake her up would've been a crime, the same thing I felt when we stood outside in the night to swim on the hotel's pool. Of all of the adventures, of all of our moments together since the beginning, that is a memory I will always keep as one of the most valuable treasures in the universe.

Hit by the unmerciful wave of reality, I found myself back in my room, looking at the windows, the natural lights of the stars barely striking my recently opened eyes as the last drops of that memory faded away. I didn't notice it after a few long seconds; I had been embracing my pillow with strength and attachment, that caused me a confusing, unexpected sorrow, I knew what that meant, but I didn't care, I couldn't let go of that pillow, my arms where blocked and my mind lost, in the blink of an eye, I didn't know other kind off feeling but sadness. "I need you." I wished things to be different, something that once seemed to be palpable and eternal started to feel like a distant dream, an illusion.

It was two in the morning; I hadn't been able to even close my eyes without thinking about my issues with Krystal, I couldn't stand it anymore and got out of my bed, I went to the sink to wash my face, when I looked at myself in the mirror, all I could see was a mix of failure and success, the accomplishment of the life of a pilot, the loss of a damaged love, it was one thing or the other, frustration came to me as I realized I had no choice but to follow just one of both paths.

Decisions suck, if you ask me, why couldn't I just live the best of both worlds? Was it impossible? A weak, selfish fantasy? My father taught me that there was nothing that couldn't be done, and the word of him, was my law, my compass, and that had turned me into a stubborn person, a quality I'm not afraid to presume of. The answer was there, that stubbornness would let me reconquer what I was losing, I had to make my own choices, and I made a compromise with myself, I had to make it work, fly through the stars and live with my love, a goal I knew was difficult but not impossible.

I wasn't tired at all; I just put on my clothes and exited my room, I just rested my arms over the railing next to the hallway's entrance and glanced at the long window for a couple of seconds, I just needed time to calm down. I walked towards the kitchen then searched for snacks on the cupboard, I found some biscuits and energy bars, took a pair of each. I headed towards the lounge and sat down on the couch; I turned on the TV with a voice command, there was nothing in particular I wanted to see on the digital library, I chose a random video from the Academy, the typical voice of a tutorial narrator managed to get me distracted as I saw images of stranded ships on distant planets. "Welcome, future pilot of Corneria's honorable fleet! Today you will learn about the importance of survival skills on difficult situations, let me hand this to one of the greatest pilots in the history of Corneria, James McCloud!" I went to alarm mode just by hearing that name, I had never been so attentive at that type of video courses, my father was standing in front of the camera inside of his office, pointing at it with his index finger and acting like if he was talking directly to a novice pilot, wearing his dark glasses. "You think you have what it takes to get out of trouble when no one is around? No? Don't worry, James McCloud is here to give you some advices!" Hearing him speaking in third person made me cringe a little, and just because he was my father. "Remember and take note! Take all you can from what you have with you, water, provisions, refuge, don't panic and use your resources with wisdom, always make this a habit, because nothing seems valuable until you lack of it, and believe me, you won't want to get there!" I thought, are you talking to me? What kind of cruel joke was this? Of course I knew it was just coincidence, but, I had found a way to save the day, finally.


	6. Chapter 6: Gradual Rapprochement

Star Fox: Epsilon

Chapter 6: Gradual Rapprochement

The alarm of arrival woke me up when the ship was entering Dirartar's orbit. I had sleep like three hours, but I felt well rested somehow. I left the lounge and headed to the main room, where the rest of my team was already looking at the planetoid through the window. When I got behind them, Falco turned and looked at me rather surprised. "First time you are late, Fox."

"Sorry, I haven't been feeling well." I noticed Krystal lowering her head a little bit, I didn't want to make her feel guilty, really, but I thought that could've been a signal that she still cared about me.

"Well, hurry up, your clothes are right there." Next to the chairs in front of the console, there was a bench where Slippy had put a pair of dark green, cargo pants and a longsleeved, white shirt.

"What, are we on vacation?" It took me some time to notice that Krystal was also wearing a pair of cargo pants, only that these were beige colored, her shirt was similar to mine and she had put on her heavy duty boots.

"It is pure desert down there, Fox, no one wants you to suffer heatstroke." Slippy put The Great Fox in standby mode. "We'll enter the base in Falco's ship."

"Which is just ready." Falco didn't wait to presume his acquisition, again. "The encryption system of this beauty will let us bypass Epsilon's protocols."

I put on my desert-proof clothes so we were all ready to leave The Great Fox and infiltrate in the base. We went to the hangar and boarded Falco's ship. Falco started to take us down to Dirartar's atmosphere. "Alright, task check, Krystal and I will deactivate the health systems of the base."

"I will take this ship to the closest transmitting station and wait for your signal with Slippy." Falco started to reach Dirartar's skies.

"Perfect." We could all already see the sandy surface of the system which shined by the intensity of the sun.

Falco activated the reconnaissance program of the ship. "This cannot be."

"What?" Krystal showed just a bit of concern.

"These blasted base has just one station, and it happens is located right at the opposite side of the safety quarters." Falco just kept descending as we obviously had no other choices.

"Where the health systems are." It was something to be concerned, as the base's size was huge and that meant a trip of at least three days, I had asked Falco if we could use the quads he had inside of his ship, but they didn't have a reliable encryption system so we didn't want to take the risk of being detected.

"Whatever, we are approaching the station, get your stuff ready." Falco got the ship through a dense cloud of sand; he could barely land us over the station's platform. Fortunately for us, that area was rather uncovered. I took my gun that was on its holster and put it on along with my backpack with water and provisions.

"Don't forget to connect this adapter to the console." Slippy handed me a cylindrical device which I kept in one of the bags of my pants.

"Got it." I also activated the comm on my wrist.

Falco opened the ship's gate from the pilot seat then lowered the staircase. "Are you two ready?"

Krystal was armed and already with one foot outside of the ship on the first stair. "We can't afford losing more time, come on, Fox." She went down the staircase and gave a slight jump to the platform.

"Keep in contact, okay?" Falco told me before I was about to follow Krystal.

"Sure, if you have trouble, don't doubt to call us." I reached the platform rather nervous, for one side I had the chance to set things right with her but for the other, those three days could become very awkward and uncomfortable. There was no turning back, Falco had closed the gate, we were right in front of the immense base we were about to infiltrate, lots of tall, dark blue edifices and paths to follow.

"Shall we walk straight, or around the base?" Krystal was eager to start the mission.

"I say we should surround it, that way we'll have fewer soldiers to deal with." I was very impressed by the structure Epsilon had built, they even designed the buildings with their institutional color, the base-city they had constructed was actually established through a mountain, the sun's abrasive heat made the huge, metallic buildings to shine greatly.

"Well, let's get this done." Krystal walked by me and after she took a few steps, she looked at me over her shoulder. "Fox."

I just nodded with my gaze lost on the big path of sand ahead of us. "Sure." She kept walking then I approached her, already feeling the same, annoying silence I was so afraid to experience again, something that kept my mind distracted from the sun's unmerciful heat. I focused my gaze on her occasionally, it was something I just couldn't stop, I wanted to enjoy that privilege as long as I could, because I felt that would go away frighteningly soon, and I didn't want to take the risk of not remembering her look perfectly.


	7. Chapter 7: Tacit Warmth

Star Fox: Epsilon

Chapter 7: Tacit Warmth

Krystal and I were about to sneak into a surveillance area, a bridge with a floor made of glass that let us see the mountains below our feet was our path to that zone, the bridge was protected by security stalls on the sides, the advantage for us was that this structures didn't have cameras or sensors, it was just the two of us walking cautiously between the stalls probably full of low-profile security guards that could come out from their places at any moment and compromise the mission, or maybe they were just a decoy, we couldn't be sure in that moment. "Make sure to have your hand near of your holster." I sounded paranoiac, but Krystal did have her fingers almost touching the steel of her gun after I suggested that.

"So many stalls, yet no one has appeared, do you think Epsilon would be this careless?" It was about the mission, but her actually talking to me directly had become an occasional pleasure that day.

"It's a big base; they can't fortify it with top notch personal everywhere." I wanted to believe that so much, specially when the guards started to come out from their hideouts. I was glad to see them unarmed, as at that time I felt my fighting skills needed some refreshing. They were eight men, guessing by their ears I assume they were coyotes, they had their snouts covered with cloth so I'm not entirely sure.

They recognized our faces immediately and ran towards us; I just shared a look with Krystal that was enough to concur in getting the job split between the two of us. She took the lead first at receiving her first two rivals with a kick that got them over their knees, the two others tried to attack her from behind but she jumped and surrounded their necks with her arms then brought them down using her weight.

I let her manage the situation as the four guards had me surrounded, I went for the one I found least prepared at first as I managed to see he had not adopted the correct fighting position, I ran towards him and evaded an early punch he had thrown towards my stomach then I mimicked his move and took all the air out of him. Two guys held my arms and pushed me towards the edge of the bridge, all of a sudden I had a sure death below my feet, I was holding all my weight with my hands, one of the men tried to step on them but with a lot of effort and an evasive move I managed to stand over the bridge again, with death not so close again, I punched the guard right in the snout several times while trying to get away from the bridge's edge, I finally kicked his face and left him unconscious on the ground, there were three left, they surrounded me once again and I let them attack first, I crouched and saw their fists above my head, I held their arms and brought them all down then I stood up fast and applied a move I had learned from Krystal, I took the chance to hit their muzzles with the tip of my boot, one by one, nobody could've managed to recover from that.

Krystal had already taken care of the guards she had chosen to fight with. "Are you okay?" I asked her and she just nodded at me, she resumed our journey and walked away from me.

That fight with the guards was something I was starting to miss as we had spent plenty of hours just walking through abandoned edifices and clouds of sand, boredom wasn't something new for me but it started to drive me crazy anyway. We both stopped walking when our feet couldn't give more and the cold of the night had our bodies nearly paralyzed, luckily, we had an old storage station in front of us, I took my blaster and shot at the recognition pad, the door opened and we didn't hesitate to enter the building. It was not a five-star hotel room but enough to keep us safe for the night. We put our stuff on the floor, and Krystal helped me to block the door with a nearby box, then she tried to turn the lights on with the switch, but it seemed that the zone didn't have energy anymore. "Help me move those boxes to this corner." She wanted to make an improvised surface to sleep over it, I gave her a hand by dragging a big, dusty toolbox towards the one she was moving.

"Well, you got yourself a bed." Before I could try to build my own, she said something that sparked a light of hope in my heart.

"We can share it, if you want to." I could see truth in her eyes, not just pure courtesy.

"Uhm, are you sure?" Still, I didn't want to take any chances. For my relief, she nodded unhesitatingly and laid over the two boxes after taking off her boots. I also took off mine as the pain on my feet was killing me. At first, I just sat over the edge of the improvised bed, then I got enough courage to lay next to her. After a couple of sleepless nights, I finally had one that was a wonderful exception, I had the entire night to look at her beautiful face, to listen to her delicate breathing and to feel her heartbeats as I hugged her, maybe she didn't notice it, maybe she let me do it to stand the freezing cold, I didn't care at the moment, I focused on enjoying the embrace I had the chance to experience again.


	8. Chapter 8: The Finest Roughness

Star Fox: Epsilon

Chapter 8: The Finest Roughness

The first thing my eyes saw in the morning as I opened them was my wife's face, the peaceful, innocent way she was sleeping had already made my day. I knew we couldn't afford to lose any time, but I chose to be selfish just at once, I gave myself a couple more minutes to admire her, to feel her close to me. After that, I went back to reality and patted her shoulder to wake her up; she opened her eyes slowly and looked at mine. "Morning." Maybe it was just courtesy, but at that time, any word of hers was priceless to me.

"Good morning." I didn't want to stand up, but she gave me no choice as she started to get up with a stretch. I sighed then got my feet on the floor to put on my boots, I got off the improvised bed and headed towards my backpack, then I put it on. Krystal had also got up and put on her own boots then went for her backpack too.

"Let´s keep moving." She moved the boxes that we had used to block the entrance, then the automatic door of the storage station opened.

"Wait." I thought we could find something useful on those boxes, so I just opened one of them, I am so glad I had that idea. "What have we got here?"

"What is it?" Certain type of devices where still strange for Krystal.

I was holding a dusty device with a rudimentary touch screen. "It´s a transport index, we could use it to get us some local vehicles."

"Good idea." As I said before, any compliment from her was gold to me.

I prayed in my mind for the device to have some life in it, thing that became true as I saw the boot screen after I had turned the device on. "Excellent." I navigated through all the categories on the list, and I managed to find some good options. "Okay." I stood up and got close to my wife to show her what I had found. "What do you think? They are just a few blocks from here."

"IS-91s?" I could tell she didn't love the idea.

"I know they are old, but they are still a faster way to move than going by foot." I thought I had won the discussion already.

"They have no weapons, Fox, they are sliders, for cargo." The idea started to sound terrible with that argument.

I started to reconsider the option, maybe they were a little to discrete, but that was exactly what I was aiming to, also, I remembered a night when my dad took me to his office, I was bored as heck and that made me to take a book he had over his desktop, it talked about weaponization, I had never thought it could come in handy one day, but it did. "We got our blasters; we can attach them to the sliders´systems."

She let out a mocking chuckle. "Are you kidding me?"

"What other options do we have?" It sounded less rude in my mind, but it was enough to make her understand we were limited.

She took out the memory with the virus and looked at it, she really wanted to end with Epsilon, same as me, as everyone. "Fine."

"It will work, I promise." I put a hand on her shoulder; I expected a bad reaction, but a subtle movement of her lips looked like a hidden smirk for me, hope was still present, that was keeping me motivated.


	9. Chapter 9: Accurate Ruses

Star Fox: Epsilon

Chapter 9: Accurate Ruses

Krystal and I were doing the last adjustments to the sliders we were modifying, they were like very small arwings and couldn't elevate that much from the ground, they also weren't the best in their own category as the weight they could carry was minimum. I was securing one of the last screws with some hits with the hammer I had found on a toolbox inside the hangar we were in. "It's done!" I had attached my blaster to the slider successfully so I stood up to test it out, I got on the vehicle and turned it on, its frontal green lights activated as it started to hover, I pressed the poorly soldered button I had placed on the steering wheel and the blaster shot a charge onto the wall, leaving a small, burning hole on its dark blue surface. I couldn't stop the chuckle of success that came from me after the test. "It works!" I left the vehicle on and jumped out from it, I saw Krystal struggling with the task as she was kneeling down before her slider, with her gaze lost on the overwhelming amount of cables she had took out of the vehicle's front, so I walked towards her to give her a hand. "Need some help?" I said, Krystal sighed and nodded. I knelt down next to her and started to do and undo all the mess she had done with the cables, is not an offense by any means but I found out that kind of stuff just wasn't her thing. "Your blaster." I lifted my open hand for her to hand it to me, she did so quickly and I began to do the pertinent adjustments.

After a couple of minutes, all the work that was left was to secure the blaster to the vehicle, I handed her the hammer to let her do the job, she hit the screw over the metallic holder between the weapon and the slider several times and with that she managed to get it ready. "Thanks." She said.

I crouched and dared to stroke her hair. "It was a job of two." I offered her my hand to help her get up, she took it and got into her feet. She walked towards the vehicle and got on it then activated it and spotted the fire button, she pressed it and the blaster fired, making the same consequence as my previous test with my own vehicle. "We´re good to go, then." I said then approached my slider and hopped to get on the seat, we had left the hangar's gate open so we went out of there in a blink en route to the safety quarters.

What at first seemed to be another day of trip turned into a comfortable two hours ride to the goal, the safety quarters, Epsilon had the biggest grid of communication in the galaxy, that was crucial for them to maintain their dominance, so I was sure that day was the day of their downfall. We never braked for a rest or stopped accelerating, we did a few dodges here and there when architectural obstacles got in our way, we were fortunate as we didn't encounter with any unwanted company, well, at least during the first hour.

Three patrol ships appeared from nowhere and started to give us trouble, their surface was painted with Epsilon's official color, dark blue, one flying over us and the other two separated, one covering me on my left side and the other on my wife's right side, they recognized us and the vehicle above started to shoot at our sliders. Krystal and I barely evaded the shots as the ships that were covering us didn't let us move that freely. I turned heavily towards the ship at my side and hit it hard, managing to send it farther from me so I took advantage of that and rushed to the front then turned to face the still unstable vehicle, I pressed the fire button and shoot the blaster's charge towards the front of the ship, I hit a critical spot as smoke started to come out from the hole my attack had made, the vehicle stopped hovering and fell down, the pilot got off the vehicle and aimed his personal blaster at me, the pilot wore a black, armored suit with several blue details, he also wore a black helmet that only let his ears to show, he was a canine, thing I guessed by both his ears and his tail, I reacted soon enough and pressed the fire button again, hitting him right on the chest and therefore neutralizing him.

Krystal went further and used a conveniently ramp shaped antenna to compensate her slider's poor flying capacities by accelerating towards it, the slider elevated and got no less than five meters above the ship that was covering Krystal´s side, but that wasn't her objective, she actually got in front of the vehicle that was attacking us from above then shoot the slider's blaster, it hit the glass of the cockpit and got through it, not a major damage for the ship but a deadly one for the pilot, the vehicle fell down and smashed the ground strongly.

There was only one left, it was chasing me from behind and I couldn't find a chance to turn and finish the matter, but something unexpected happened, the patrolling ship exploded and the expansive wave hit the back of my slider strongly so that sent me away from my vehicle and I fell to the ground, I gasped as it was a painful hit right on rock hard concrete. I laid there waiting to recover then I saw a triangle shaped, black ship flying across the sky, it got out of my sight rapidly, I stood up with effort and tried to look for that ship but it was definitely gone, it was something odd, Epsilon didn't use that kind of models and if it had actually been from them anyways, it would have spotted us both and destroyed us right there with no doubt.

I turned around and saw Krystal standing up next to her slider, dusting off her clothes while doing so. I rushed towards her to see if she was injured. "Krystal." I put a hand on her back. "Are you okay?"

Krystal rested a hand on the vehicle. "I think so." She replied. "Now I'm sure these things aren't meant to fly."

I chuckled. "Yeah, I saw the whole thing, that movement you did was very impressive, to be fair." I managed to make her grin, an achievement I considered more satisfying than disabling a ship with a cheap vehicle mod. "Uhm, Krystal." The mysterious triangle ship came back to my mind. "This may sound strange, but I think someone…"

"Intervened." Krystal took the words out of my mouth.

"Yes." I replied. "Well, I'm not sure, did you see what happened?"

Krystal nodded. "That ship had a cannon, it destroyed the ship that was chasing you."

I raised an eyebrow. "Huh." I turned my gaze to the sky just to see if the ship had come back. "Weird."

Krystal sighed and got back on her slider. "Maybe we'll figure that out later." She reactivated the vehicle and it began to hover again. "We are almost there, we should keep moving."

I shook my head and blinked a couple of times to refocus on the mission, leaving the matter for later. "Sure." I walked towards my slider and checked its back to see if it had taken any damage from the explosion, fortunately, it was intact so I got on it and turned the systems on. Our ships were ready to go so we didn't hesitate to continue our journey to the safety quarters.

Krystal was right, we were almost there, I could see the tall, pointy antenna on the horizon. As we kept moving forward we encountered with a great tunnel in front of us. "You think this leads there?" I inquired with a higher tone in my voice so she could hear me.

"It should." Krystal replied. "Is not that we have other options, anyway." Good reasoning of hers, we went inside the tunnel, it was almost completely dark, the unending lines of red lights at its sides illuminated the path a little bit. Things seemed to be quite calm for about half an hour but suddenly we heard two noises like the ones of lasers and our vehicles stopped working immediately, as the sliders had got damaged in movement, we flew out of them and hit the concrete several times until we both ended laying next to each other over the ground, groaning by the pain. We heard two automatic doors opening, one right in front of me and one behind my wife, a group of Epsilon soldiers surrounded us with their rifles pointing at us. We tried to get into our feet but one of the soldiers shot warningly at the ground to stop us.

"Stay still, cornerian scum!" One of the soldiers warned. "Hands behind your head! Now!" He ordered as we were on our knees, I obeyed the man's orders as I obviously had no choice, Krystal did the same. We got caught, the mission was over.


	10. Chapter 10: Crimson Streams

Star Fox: Epsilon

Chapter 10: Crimson Streams

I was captive, just as my wife, we had our hands behind our lower backs and our wrists and ankles were being held with magnetic cuffs, the cell we were in was dark as its only light was a hanging lightbulb on the ceiling, it was a small room, we were just laying on the floor as we couldn't get up. I was glancing at her face, her gaze was lost on a corner of the cell. "Krystal." I said, she didn't say a thing. "Love, I know you are worried but we'll get through this, I promise you that."

Krystal delayed a bit to respond. "Just stop." She sighed and closed her eyes to let a tear to break and fall to the dirty floor. "Don't lie to me, Fox." She sobbed. "We are doomed."

I did the best I could to drag myself towards her. "I'd never do that." I managed to get my face in front of hers. "Hey." I tried to make her look at me. "Krystal."

Krystal growled. "What?!" She finally looked at my eyes.

"Falco and Slippy, they'll rescue us like they always do, we just need to wait." I said, trying to reassure her, with no success.

"They'll recover our dead bodies." Krystal said. "That's all you can hope for."

I sighed at her lack of faith. "Love, don't say that." I got my snout closer to hers. "Of all the people I know you are the most optimistic one."

Krystal sighed. "Fox, just leave me alone." She frowned and closed her eyes again.

"We are locked up in the same cell if you didn't notice." I sounded rude but she was starting to get right into my nerves. "So, I'm afraid that won't be possible."

Krystal growled and her voice began to sound broken. "This is your fault, this is all on you, Fox."

"How is this my fault?" I inquired, already upset by her accusation.

"Don't play the fool." Krystal sobbed. "I told you so many times that this would happen, but you never listened."

"Of course I listened but do you think it's just that easy for me to retire and forget everything? To get away from doing what I love?" I thought that was a smart answer but she twisted it right away.

"You love this more than me?!" Krystal started to cry softly. "I'm your wife, Fox!" Her cry got deeper. "I'm your freaking wife and you don't care!"

My emotions were mixed, I felt guilty for what she was saying and angry at the same time as she didn't seem to understand what the merc life meant for me. "I do care! Krystal! I love you more that anything but I guess that's not enough for you! You need all the attention even if that stops me from living the life I want!" The words I said next were something I deeply regretted. "You are just being selfish!"

Krystal snarled. "Selfish! You're the one…" She stopped talking as her cry didn't let her express the words correctly, she just kept crying and didn't add anything else.

I dragged myself back to my previous spot, giving her some space, but wounds had been made and that wasn't going to help much anyway. The rusty door of the cell was opened by no one else but Epsilon's leader, Remus Lafayette, he was a cougar and was wearing the official uniform, armored and with dark blue details, with Epsilon's logo on the zone of the chest. "The McClouds." He got inside and closed the door. "What a grateful surprise." He approached Krystal and knelt before her, then he took her neck with one hand.

"Don't you dare touch her!" I yelled. Remus laughed with mockery and lifted her up, then smashed her against the wall at his side. "No! Stop you imbecile! You are choking her!" I could hear her gasps and coughs.

Remus laughed cynically. "As you wish." He smashed her violently onto the floor, making her to scream by the pain, and then he began to kick her belly repeatedly, her constant screams took me into a great suffering.

"Stop! Stop! Stop!" I begged with desperation, but he kept kicking her until he got tired.

Remus stood there for a moment, watching my wife still suffering by her aching stomach. He turned and approached me then kneeled down in front of me. "Now it's your turn." He made me look at him by lifting my chin with his hand then he slapped me. He lifted me by the neck just as he did with Krystal and began to punch my face, I could only gasp and groan by the hardness of his fists hitting my snout and my eyes over and over again, I swore I could hear Krystal calling my name but the noise was so ambiguous and my sight blurred that I couldn't be totally sure. He suddenly dropped me back on the floor, my snout was bleeding, rivers of blood were slowly coming out of my nostrils, I hadn't tasted my own blood in a while. "Wha…" I was struggling to speak. "What do you…" I gasped. "…want…" The dizziness I was feeling was the worst I had ever felt. "Intel?"

Remus laughed. "No, Mr. McCloud." He just walked away from us. "You got nothing we don't already know." He said a last phrase before closing the door. "We are just letting you die here, that's all."


	11. The Small Cost Of The True Conviction

Star Fox: Epsilon

Chapter 11: The Small Cost Of The True Conviction

That's what Lylat earned for their mistrust on us, we were their protectors! Not only Star Fox but the entire Cornerian fleet! I did everything I could to stop the project but democracy won eventually and Epsilon went official. They sold dreams of heroism and purpose but those were blatant lies, the eventual rebellion of the institution was planned since before its foundation, treason and selfishness was Epsilon's nucleus.

I was going to die there, who was I fooling? It was over, we lost, the galaxy lost, I already knew that would happen since my contacts sent me some of Epsilon's confidential documents, the words there were not subtle at all, they mentioned everything that had happened, first the secret mission to Dirartar and its silent conquest, then the war against Star Wolf and they all had the same ending, perpetual domination, that was already happening and we were Lylat's only hope to take the operation down, but that chance was long gone.

They worked with wrong education, an aberrant worldview full of madness and anarchy out of the natural order of things, they claimed to be defenders of change while they actually were promoters of death and destruction, I said no more! I told my team, the fleet and my people that I would fight for what was right! And I did that!

She believed me before the beginning, she never doubt of me, she trusted my word, she joined the fight because of me! And she was going to die! It was my fault! We were both there because of my stubbornness!

I had to be stubborn, that brought me there, to that abyss, but I didn't regret it, I didn't regret it at all! The pain, the suffering, they were worth it! Every single wound, every night of insomnia, they were nothing compared to what I was about to achieve! I was going to end with Epsilon's tyranny once and for all! But I failed, I failed my people, I failed the galaxy, I failed her, I just wanted to make the galaxy a better place for my wife, for my sons! A bright future for my future sons! So I failed them too.

She was asleep, but not because of innocent tiredness, she was hungry and thirsty as I was, I couldn't bear seeing her like that, broken either from the outside as from the inside, the last was totally on me, I shouldn't have got her involved, that was my mission, my quest, my crusade, it was personal, how? They messed with the minds and hearts of the poor children! They taught them wild, mischievous values that needed to be eradicated! And I couldn't do anything about it! Inside that blasted cell!

I just hoped that someone, on the smallest corner of the edges of Lylat would remember me and adopt the mission eventually, a never ending one, a constant fight for what was right, a fight to bring them down.

The last speeches started to come out, innerly. "Krystal, I wanted to give you the greatest gifts of all, peace, tranquility, joy, that was my purpose, my beloved, I'm sorry I wasn't competent enough to make that a reality, I'm really sorry, love, I'm so sorry."


	12. Chapter 12: Contributive Circumstances

Star Fox: Epsilon

Chapter 12: Contributive Circumstances

My eyes were closed, but my mind couldn't find peace, the times I managed to actually sleep I had sporadic dreams where Krystal and I were elsewhere, looking at each other with eyes of love and not with ones of discord, we were happy together, no fights, no discussions, only love, but they were just that, insignificant dreams.

My ear twitched when I heard the cell's door opening, I thought I was hallucinating but when I opened my eyes the blinding light of the hallway told me I was not in a dream, hope died instantly when I remembered the cuffs, it was so frustrating, until they somehow got deactivated, Krystal's went the same. "Krystal." It took me a lot of effort to stand up and approach her, I crouched and moved her slightly to wake her up, she opened her eyes slowly and the hallway's light dazzled her as well.

"Fo…Fox?" Krystal said. "Where are we?"

"We are still prisoners, but not for too long…" I helped her to get into her feet. "…If we hurry."

Krystal looked at her hands then glanced at the cuffs that were on the floor. "How?" She looked at me.

I shook my head. "I don't know, just walk." I put my arm over her shoulders, she did the same with me, we walked towards the hallway and I blinked for a moment by the increasing light. "Keep moving." I said, the hallway was long, there were no other cells there, so I discovered we had been their only prisoners as we walked. "Krystal, the drive." I was not going to leave until we completed the mission.

Krystal patted her pocket and found out it was still there. "I have it." It seemed that Epsilon wasn't smart enough to register us.

I patted my pocket as well and felt a relief when feeling the adapter Slippy had handed me. "We can complete the mission." I said while helping her with her steps. "We must."

Krystal nodded. "I know." She suddenly removed my arm from her shoulders and hers from mine. "They'll find us soon, we should be ready to fight."

I nodded. "I agree." The walking became more difficult but we both could handle it, there was a sign pasted on the wall in front of us that meant the end of the hallway. "Right, Health Systems, Left, Exit." I read out loud. "Come on." I walked past her and headed to the right, I turned briefly to see if she was catching up with my steps, we both had sped up our walking. The hallway we entered was much less bright than the previous one as there were several dead light-bulbs. "Back to back." I heard people approaching, she understood the maneuver and rested her back on mine as she walked backwards.

"Fox!" Falco's voice was heard from my comm, I guess our cell had a jammer or something. "Where are you! Respond!"

"Fox here." I responded. "We're approaching the health systems."

I could hear Falco's sigh of relief. "I thought you two were toasted!"

"It's a long story, just be ready, I'll call you back." I deactivated my comm and a guard like the ones we fought back on the bridge showed up at the end of the dark hallway so he ran towards me.

"Stay still." I told her, the guard approached me and I put both hands at the walls at my sides then lifted my feet off the ground and kicked the guard's jaw, leaving him unconscious on the floor. "Thanks." I kept walking, I suddenly noticed that Krystal had backed away from me then I heard gasps and hits from the distance, after a moment she was back with me.

"Two out." Krystal said while hyperventilating.

"Just take it easy." I said, I didn't want her to faint all of a sudden. "We're almost there." She gasped again and cuffed her arms with mine.

"Crouch!" I obeyed her and heard a shot, then something that sounded like a kick and a man falling. I got up when the brief brawl was over, she then freed my arms.

"I'll take the lead." Krystal proposed. "I have his blaster."

"Sure." I accepted, she walked by me and got in front of me, we went back to back as before. "We must hurry." We sped up our steps and while doing so I heard several shots from my wife, she was taking down all of the enemies she encountered with, the worry of losing her was constant but at the same time I trusted her abilities as a fighter. I heard her opening a door.

"Is here." She said, I turned and walked into the room after her, it was dark just as the hallway and the only light we could see was the intermittent red led of the health systems which was over a huge, polygonal shaped machine on the middle of the room. She approached it and didn't hesitate to take out the drive. "The adapter, Fox." I walked towards her and took out the cylindrical device from my pocket then handed it to her, she connected the drive there and then connected the adapter to the slot in the machine.

I let out a subtle chuckle of success then turned on my comm. "Falco, now." He had to send a signal using his ship and the transmitting station.

"Now?" Falco asked.

I growled as I was desperate. "Yes! Now!" Falco cut off the conversation after that.

The red light started to dim until it went off, then all of a sudden it went on again and got much brighter than before, Krystal and I backed away instinctively and the machine suddenly exploded. I covered her and myself from the explosion with my arm, the noise activated the alarms of the place and the light that the explosion had made vanished, we just ran towards the hallway after that. "We must find an exit." I said while rushing followed by my wife.

"Turn right!" Krystal had remembered the sign's directions so I did so, there was a staircase at the bottom so we both rapidly approached it and climbed it. I reached the hatch above us then activated my comm to speak with Falco. "Falco! It worked! Now head to the roof!"

"The roof?" Falco had got into my nerves.

"Yes! The roof! The building's roof!" I exclaimed then started to punch the hatch to open it, it was a pain for my knuckles but there was no other option, I kept punching the hatch until I finally opened it. We exited to the rooftop, one after the other, I closed the hatch and looked at the sky which was dark and with some starts showing up, I looked at my comm's clock, it was three in the morning, I just laid and kept my gaze at the sky, Krystal just sat down next to me, we were both waiting for Falco to arrive and extract us, he didn't delay as I saw the frontal lights of his ship over us, Falco moved the ship closer to us and opened the door from there, I stood up then approached Krystal to try to help her get up but she just did it herself, I didn't know if she didn't see me or if she was still angry with me, maybe it was the later.

Krystal entered the ship before I did, we both headed directly to the seats on the back and sat down, Falco turned his gaze at us to confirm we were completely inside then he closed the door of the ship and accelerated towards the planet's atmosphere, exiting from it in no time.

As soon as we reached space, Falco started to ask us about the mission. "Why didn't you answer? You got us worried as heck." He said.

"Yes we thought they had killed you!" Slippy said.

"The important thing now is that we destroyed their communications." I was having a hard time trying to forget everything wrong that happened there, the cell, the pain, all of that. "The work is done." It was official, we had ended with Epsilon's grid of communication, now there was only one thing left, corner them on their own bases, chase them across the galaxy and destroy them once and for all. We were barely starting.


	13. Chapter 13: Afore Awe

Star Fox: Epsilon

Chapter 13: Afore Awe

We were back at Corneria, exiting from the army's medical center, the nurse had told us both to take at least a week of rest because of our injuries and the apparent shock we just experienced, but resting was not a choice, Epsilon was done, we just needed to take the final shot. A transport was waiting for us at the airstrip with the door open, we boarded the flying vehicle and it began to take us to the command center to meet with Peppy.

While I glanced at the stars of the night through the transport's window, Krystal stood up from the seat she had chosen first and opted to sit down next to me, there was a lot going on in my mind, the mission, what was coming, my fight with her, I wanted to apologize but didn't find the courage to do so, I decided to speak and let the words come out on their own but she didn't let me.

"Fox." By the tone of her voice I could sense sorrow on her. "What happened there, I want to…" She was about to cry so I wrapped my arm around her shoulders, she lifted her gaze and took a deep breath. "I'm so confused." She cleaned a tear from her face with her arm. "I just don't know what will happen after this is over."

I got closer to her. "No one knows that, Krystal." I began to caress her hair. "One thing I do know is that no matter what, I'll always love you."

Krystal shook her head. "How can you still love a selfish woman like me?" She hurt me badly with that but I had nothing to say on my defense, those words had actually come from my mouth.

I sighed and hugged her strongly. "I'm sorry, believe me, I acted like an idiot." I rested my chin on her shoulder. "No one has the right to call you that way."

Krystal began to cry. "What if its true, Fox?" She hugged me back. "Maybe I just want what's good for me and can't think about others."

"Don't say that, what you've been doing, helping to dismantle Epsilon, that's more than all the good that can be done in a lifetime." I stroked her back as I could hear her sobbing silently.

"Fox, if you need to leave me behind, don't be afraid." Krystal said. "I'll be fine."

I hugged her stronger. "I'll never leave you, Krystal, even if you are one hundred galaxies away from me, you'll always be present."

Krystal sobbed. "I believe in marriage, Fox." She leaned her head on mine. "It's sacred and unbreakable." She said. "How can we save it?"

"We will, my love." I kept reassuring her. "But one thing is crucial to achieve that."

Krystal broke the hug and looked directly into my eyes. "What?" She pleaded for an answer.

"To stay together, at peace, at anger, at pain." I kissed her. "But always together."

Krystal lowered her gaze then took my hand. "Together." She nodded and looked at me again then kissed me back, that moment felt mixed for me, I was sure she still loved me by her gesture of affection, but at the same time, it looked it was too soon to call it a victory, at least for me.

The transport arrived at the command center's hangar, the automatic doors opened and we exited the vehicle. Some soldiers were doing their routinary activities there, they started to clap at us with looks of admiration, I just smiled at some of them and kept walking but Krystal had her gaze lowered all the time, she looked confused, distracted, same as me. We went upstairs and I put my personal access code on the panel next to the door in front of us then it opened and we entered a great hallway were all the offices of the superior members of the cornerian army were, in design it was just like the city, some blue designs here and there and a dominant gray aesthetic, we kept walking until we reached Peppy's office, the door was open as he was expecting us with Falco and Slippy already with him, so we got in.

The three were having a conversation about the mission and stuff like that but they interrupted it as Peppy decided to greet us both. "Oh son." He had always called me that way, ever since I was a kid. "I'm so glad you two made it." He shook my hand then Krystal's. "I knew I could count on you."

"Well, we got through some trouble." I replied, trying to be modest.

Peppy chuckled. "What's a mission without some downs?" He walked towards the interactive table at the center and displayed a three dimensional map of Lylat, which showed all of the bases of Epsilon uncommunicated as intended. He looked at everyone in the room. "I'm proud of you, tomorrow we'll define our final strategy, thanks to you, you've earned a good, long rest." I was killing for a decent sleep that night, for obvious reasons.

We were finally back at our comfy, warm and tidy apartment, the smell of clean clothes almost felt like a new experience for me, the pair of black shorts and the old, white T-shirt I always slept with gained more value to me, my wife also welcomed her usual, white nightgown with thankfulness. We both went to bed and I felt a beautiful relief when Krystal hugged me and cuddled without hesitation. That moment felt real. It was real.


	14. Chapter 14: Shattered Existence

Star Fox: Epsilon

Chapter 14: Shattered Existence

A violent, noisy explosion woke us up, the clock was the first thing I saw like always, two in the morning, more explosions started to come, I stood up rapidly and turned on the lights then went for my usual attire and put it on fast, Krystal had reacted even faster than me and was already putting on her blue bodysuit. When we got fully dressed, we took our backup blasters from a drawer. Krystal looked at me, preoccupied. "Epsilon?"

I nodded. "With no doubt." I opened the door of the room and let her exit first then we rushed towards our apartment´s principal door, she opened it and we exited to the hallway. As we ran, more explosions started to sound as the ground trembled, our neighbors were getting out of their rooms and running panicked towards the elevator, it was absolutely not a good idea to use it on those situations but on the other side, it was way faster than the stairs so we followed them. We entered the elevator after all the civilians did so, one of them closed the doors and pressed the button of the lobby.

"What´s happening?!" A male skunk asked us, scared and confused.

"We don´t know for sure." I tried to sound calm and fearless. "But we think it´s Epsilon"

"They´re going to kill us all!" The skunk exclaimed and started to rub his hands anxiously.

I sighed. "Calm down, sir, we are getting into it." The elevator reached the lobby and the doors opened, the people exited to the lobby then to the street immediately, Krystal and I hurried to get out of the building. The thing was worse than I had previously thought, Krystal gasped and covered her mouth with a hand by her astonishment. The majority of the buildings around us were on fire, Epsilon´s ships covered the sky and destroyed everything at their sight, we heard screams and machine guns so we found out they had also sent elements to cover the ground, we both rushed towards where we suspected the shots were coming from and encountered with several dead bodies over the ground while on our way, we spotted the soldier that was doing the massacre, a panther who was just shooting anyone he saw with his laser machine gun, he wore Epsilon´s typical armored uniform, before he could see me, I shot him in the shoulder, my aim failed as my hands trembled, the panther gasped and began to shoot his weapon at us, we crouched and took cover behind a big, squared tree pot made of concrete that was in front of us.

As Krystal and I had our backs against the coverage, we reloaded our weapons and looked at each other, knowing what to do. "When you´re ready." Krystal said.

I remained silent for a moment then nodded. "Now." We both got out of coverage and started to shoot several charges at him, some of them missed and the others went through his head, leaving him lifeless and making him to drop the weapon. We hurried then I lifted the weapon from the ground. "This will be useful." I said, Krystal didn´t object in any way so we kept going. We went down the sidewalk then I looked at the sky, a ship started to fly down towards us, cooking it´s cannon as the green light was showing on the muzzle, before it could destroy us, I fired the machine gun at the cockpit´s window and managed to take down the pilot, the ship deviated from its course and crashed on a nearby building, exploding into pieces.

"Fox!" Krystal started to shoot, I turned and helped her deal with the squad she had suddenly encountered with, I finished them all with the machine gun but she also hit a pair of them. "We should go to the command center!"

I activated my comm and tried to speak with Peppy. "Boss, it´s Fox, we need transport, now!" I waited for an answer but it didn´t come. "Peppy! Respond!" I started to get worried so I called Falco. "Falco, respond." I felt relieved when hearing his voice.

"Falco here." I could hear a gasp through the speaker, "Sorry, I´m quite busy right now." I heard an explosion. "Yeah! Take that you idiot!" I assumed he was battling on his ship.

"Falco where are you?!" I inquired, we really needed a lift to get to the command center.

"Just one more." Falco said then another explosion was heard. "Okay, I´m free now."

I growled. "We are a few blocks from our home, I need you to come and pick us up, fast!"

"You think my ship is some kind of cab or something?" Falco always found a way to be a jerk. "Okay, man, stay where you are."

We waited no longer than two minutes before he arrived, landing his ship in front of us. Krystal and I ran towards it and got inside then he flew away from the place in a hurry. "Thanks." I sat down on the copilot seat. "Now to the command center."

Falco nodded. "Sure, have you contacted Peppy? He just won´t respond me."

I sighed. "Same, maybe he is instructing the cadets." Falco activated his ship´s turbo and arrived at the command center in no time. It seemed that we arrived to late. "What the heck?" I stood up and looked at all the smoke that was covering the hangar. "Land, now!" I began to get very anxious.

"I´m on it, man!" Falco landed the ship after hovering through the dark smoke, he left the systems on and we three jumped out of it, we found several dead bodies of soldiers and cadets scattered over the floor, we rushed towards the superior offices, Falco put his code fast and the door opened, we ran through the hallway and we noticed the doors of every office had been destroyed and the walls carbonized, it was insensible of us not checking the offices for survivors but at the time we were only worried for Peppy, the carbonized walls freaked me out as I started to prepare for the worst. We arrived at his office, it was completely destroyed and covered in carbon, Peppy was laying on a corner with a hand on his chest, struggling to breathe and with his snout bleeding. I ran towards him and crouched next to him, he extended his hand so I took it, he had been hurt badly.

"S..." Peppy struggled to speak. "Son." He put a hand on my face. "Ep...they..."

"Don´t worry, boss." I squeezed his hand, wanting him to stay. "We´ll take care."

Peppy coughed a couple of times. "S..." I braced myself for his last words, not for what they would mean, but because I wasn´t ready to let him go, none of us. "Star Wolf." He closed his eyes and dropped his hand, his grip vanished completely, but mine was still strong, Peppy had always been like a second father to me, I started to cry, I couldn´t help it, there was so much pain, anger, sadness, a bitter moment that I wished so hard it was just a cruel nightmare, but it wasn´t, I stood with him a couple of minutes, hugging him, wanting him back, I had one more reason to hate Epsilon, one more reason to fight back and destroy them forever.


	15. Chapter 15: Unprincipled Antidote

Star Fox: Epsilon

Chapter 15: Unprincipled Antidote

We had reunited at Falco´s place to plan a counterattack against Epsilon, inside a room he refurbished to serve as an operations center, I was sitting in front of the main computer looking for a way to communicate with Star Wolf, I didn´t love the idea but Peppy´s words albeit short, there was truth in them, we had to ask them for help. Krystal and Falco were standing behind me, just observing and Slippy was sitting down on a corner, silent, processing Peppy´s death, there was still so much I needed to let out, but there was no time to lose. "Maybe if I direct the signal to these five coordinates, I could reach them." I pressed a few keys on the workstation´s keyboard, then waited for a response.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Falco inquired. "I mean, those guys are the worst of the worst."

I sighed. "I know, man, but they have the best pilots in Lylat."

Falco chuckled. "You mean second best."

"How do you know they will even accept helping us?" Krystal was right, Star Wolf have always been our longtime enemies, but I´m sure they hated Epsilon even more than we did, they took everything from them on their war, so I was confident.

"I don´t." I responded. "We´ll just wait f..." Several beeps began to sound from the computer´s speaker, I accepted the transmission by pressing the space-bar.

"Whoever you are, you better have a good excuse to force our transmissions, otherwise wait for a long, painful..." I couldn´t stand Wolf O´Donnell´s annoying, cocky voice so I didn´t hesitate to interrupt him.

"It´s me." I sighed. "Fox." The moment felt so unfamiliar, in previous occasions I just contacted him to insult him and his team from my arwing´s comm.

"Fox..." Wolf wasn´t known for being the slickest guy out there. "...McCloud! How you dare calling us after what happened!" It was true, we ruined their chance to get a juicy bounty after we messed up with their plans to complete a big job at Ficina, so he certainly had a fair point.

"I´m not sorry for that, Wolf, if that´s what you wanted to hear." I truly wasn´t, we saved lots of people back then. "I´ll get straight to the point, we need your help, all of Star Wolf."

"Oh, so now you admit your men aren´t capable to get things done, that´s a start." I growled and tried to not take the offense but Krystal replied faster than me.

"Listen, Wolf, we want to take down Epsilon and unfortunately, we can´t do so without your brainless people so if you want to get revenge now it´s the time!" Krystal exclaimed. "Or did you forget the beating those guys gave you a few years ago?" That aggressiveness wasn´t new on her.

"Wow!" Wolf laughed impressed. "Calm down, darling, you should use that fury on the field, it suits you well!"

Falco grunted. "Are you helping or not?! Corneria is being destroyed!"

"Corneria..." Wolf said. "Those treacherous fools." Star Wolf didn´t have good history with the planet, or with anyone. "I´ll tell you what, we´ll let them perish and maybe, just maybe, we´ll help you then, understand? For now, stop wasting my time."

"Wolf! Thousands are dying!" His response didn´t surprise me, but I was still so angry at his selfishness. "Please."

"I´m sorry, Star Fox, but I owe nothing to you or Corneria, so as I said, stop wasting my time." Wolf canceled the communication, I punched the machine and stood up, desperate and unsure of everything.

Krystal approached me and put a hand on my shoulder. "Calm down, Fox, we can find another way."

I was covering my face with both hands, I didn´t want them to see me cry, everything seemed dark to me, I was hopeless, furious at Star Wolf and more at Epsilon. "They won, Krystal."

"Fox." Falco said. "The mission isn´t over, I could call some friends and..."

And just like that, I exploded at them. "They won!" I tried to disguise my broken voice. "Hundreds of ships are out there now destroying the city! Without mentioning the troops that are killing our people!"

"And that´s why we can´t stay with our arms crossed, Fox!" Falco approached me. "They won´t stop here, they have the people and the resources to destroy every system in Lylat, do you want that?!"

I turned to prevent them of seeing the tears that were running down over my face. "You said it, they have resources, what are we against them?" I cleaned the tears off my face and glanced back at them. "It´s done."

"Maybe not." Slippy stood up, finally letting out a word. "We just have to reach the mothership."

"And how are we supposed to do that, Slippy?" It was impossible to go through that amount of ships before getting busted.

"Cloaking mats." Slippy explained, I didn´t know what he was talking about. "I know where we can get them, I heard they´ve developed plenty of them on Corneria´s Science Institute."

I raised an eyebrow. "Slippy, what are you saying?"

Slippy sighed. "Those things can make our ships invisible! That way we´ll get into the mothership unnoticed!"

I was doubtful, Slippy had always bothered me with that freak science stuff, but I decided to give his idea a shot, every option was viable for me. "It could work." Hope started to slowly come back at me. "Can you obtain them?"

"That´s the thing." Slippy scratched his nape while trying to find a way to tell us we had to actually steal those. "We have to break in."

Falco chuckled with disbelief. "You are kidding, right?"

"Do I look like a joke?" Slippy asked with sarcasm.

"Well..." Falco tends to speak before thinking so I had to interrupt him.

"We´ll do it." I said decidedly.

"Fox." Krystal walked towards me. "Are you sure about this?" She placed both hands on my back. "We don´t work that way."

I sighed then looked at her, ashamed of what I was going to say. "What other choice do we have?"


	16. Chapter 16: Heist

Star Fox: Epsilon

Chapter 16: Heist

We were en route to the institute on Falco's ship, he was piloting as always and Slippy was his copilot, Krystal and I were siting at the backside. "You'll take the lead this time, Slippy, you seem to know way more than me of that place." I had actually heard of the institute before but never dug more into it, that stuff has never been on my interests.

"I know exactly what to do, Fox." Slippy replied. "We just need to strike fast, their security is deficient but enough in numbers to become a problem."

"Why are these guys so far from the city? I mean all I can see now are bunches of mountains." Falco said as we left the urban area behind.

"The research and equipment there can be dangerous in the wrong hands, so they thought it would be safer for them to be on a zone far from the general population." Slippy explained.

"Well, we are just gonna prove they were wrong." Falco argued.

"Is there!" Slippy exclaimed, bothering Falco slightly.

"Hey, I see it! You don't have to make such a scandal!" Falco began to lower the ship, landing it over a mountain that faced the place. We got off the ship then Falco opened the door of the garage by pressing a button on the back of the ship, revealing four quads ready to be ridden, they were chromed and had a gray Star Fox logo on their sides. "I've been eager to try these beauties." Falco said. We got on the quads and turned on the lights, the brightness of the moon wasn't enough, we started to head towards the complex with them then we spotted it from the distance, it was bigger than I thought, spherical buildings surrounded a bigger one that was on the middle, parks and gardens decorated the area.

"Slippy, what's the plan?" Krystal asked, speaking louder so Slippy could hear her while driving.

"We'll knock down the fence and head to the big building at the middle." Slippy replied.

"And?" I thought his planning was kind of simple, If you could call that a plan.

"And then we take the cloaking mats." Slippy answered.

"But Slippy, I mean you didn't do any kind of reconnaissance before?" I was starting to regret accepting his idea.

"Fence!" Slippy pointed at the front, we had approached the fence which we inevitably knocked down with the quads, the alarms went on, same as the red warning lights that came out from the ground in different places and a prerecorded voice started to warn the security personnel.

"Warning. Intruder. Red alert. Warning. Intruder. Red alert…" The voice said repeatedly.

"Now what?!" Falco was getting as upset as me.

"Don't worry, guys!" Slippy said. "No one will show up until…" Sounds of upcoming, enemy quads interrupted him.

I turned and saw the group of ten guards that were chasing us, their vehicles were black like their uniforms, they wore helmets. I took out my blaster while still accelerating and shot at the tires of three different vehicles, they skidded and by their interrupted movement they overturned and the guards fell down. I looked back at the front." We must split!" I proposed, my team didn't even argue to that so suddenly I had only two guards behind me, they accelerated and smashed the back of my quad, I gasped and managed to maintain the vehicle stable, I turned and saw the guards' guns pointing at me so I overturned my own vehicle by braking abruptly and falling on purpose, the fallen vehicle made theirs to collide inevitably and the guards fell to the ground along with me, I stood up fast and punched their faces to leave them unconscious then I lifted my quad and got on it, I accelerated and started to look for my teammates to help them, the place was like a labyrinth full of big spheres but I managed to spot Krystal fighting hand to hand with three guards, she was certainly giving them a lesson, Falco and Slippy passed right in front of me, being chased by the two remaining guards, I decided to help them out so I chased the guards from the distance, I took my blaster and shot at the engine of their quads and they malfunctioned, the vehicles stopped and the guards got off them, they glanced back and spotted me but it was to late, as soon as I got close to them I punched one guard's face, knocking him out by the impulse the quad had gave to my attack, I turned the quad to face the last guard, I thought I would take him out too but Slippy approached him first, braking his vehicle and getting off quickly, he threw a punch but missed pathetically, before the guard could attack him Falco got behind him and held his fist. "Not today, fellow." He punched the guard with his own fist then dropped him on the floor. "Your welcome." He told Slippy.

"I was handling it." Slippy argued.

Falco rolled up his eyes. "Yeah, sure." He said with sarcasm.

"Where's Krystal?" Slippy inquired.

"I d…" Krystal answered the question by arriving while dragging the unconscious guards from their feet.

Krystal dropped them on the ground after a gasp of exhaustion. "Thank you." She said sarcastically. "Gentlemen."

"Sorry, we didn't see you un…" Krystal interrupted me.

"Forget it." Krystal replied.

"Come on, there's the building we are looking for!" Slippy pointed at the sphere that was on the centre, then he got on his quad and rushed towards it. We followed him on our quads.

We approached the entrance and got off the vehicles then found out that the edifice's door was locked with a recognition pad, Falco didn't hesitate to take his blaster and shoot at it, the door opened afterwards. "Ladies first." He let Krystal enter, she thanked him with a friendly nod. The place was dark as the lights were off, I closed the door behind us and then looked for a switch with my tact on the wall next to me, I found it and turned the lights on, I didn't even pay attention to the building's inside as several guards were pointing at us with their weapons, some of them on the first floor and the others on the platform above us.


End file.
